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Scrap the System Parties, Get United in Our Own Class Organisations!

Who are they, banning headscarf for students and public employees, ignoring the demands of Alevis and prohibiting use of Kurdish? Who are they, maintaining these bans against persistent demands of diverse sections of society, using paranoid excuses such as “secularism”, “separation”, “Sharia”? We know them. They are the parties of capital with different names, such as AKP, CHP, MHP.

These parties do not solve problems but impose a deadlock. They turn a deaf ear to the voice diverse sections of society raised for years about their problems. The demands about wearing headscarf, education in native language and abolishment of compulsory religious classes are matters of freedoms and democratic rights!

However, aforementioned political parties follow an antagonizing policy of tension in order to attract certain sections of society towards themselves. They want to exploit existing problems and turn them into political gain. They get our vote exploiting our demands.

We workers have to say “stop” to all oppressing and discriminatory policies imposed on us. No matter what our religion, language or ethnicity is, we have to be unflagging supporters of democratic rights.

Freedom to headscarf!

AKP had promised to solve the headscarf problem. But so far they have not delivered their promise, in spite of a favourable political climate. Because they intend to exploit this problem in the elections turning it into votes. AKP acts in a complete hypocrisy. There is no need to beat around the bush for a government who sincerely wants to solve the headscarf problem. But we know and see that AKP, MHP and CHP all act hypocritically.

We workers from UID-DER call out:

Nobody can be forced to cover or uncover her head.

The ban on headscarf in universities, in the public or private institutions must be lifted.

The rights of those women, who could not go to school, get a job and work in public institutions, must be recognized immediately.

Abolish compulsory religious classes!

The ones, who keep mentioning the demands of Alevis, treat them in fact as a source of votes to come. Parties of capital, most notably CHP, abuse Alevis’ demands for their own benefits.

CHP plays the friend of Alevis, but does not even stand against compulsory religious classes!

AKP mentions some kind of Alevi opening, but keeps also saying that those classes “shall never be abolished!”

Those parties will not take a step towards solution in the course of upcoming elections!

Being treated as “infidels”, Alevis are being marginalized and insulted because of their beliefs.

Unfortunately, there are still many bigoted people who can still believe superstitious slanders about Alevis such as that they are having orgies as part of their rituals.

Alevis face special difficulties in finding a job and feel obliged to hide their religious identity.

They are also not free to fulfil the requirements of their beliefs.

And, the parties of capital such as AKP, CHP and MHP could still speak of secularism and democracy unblushingly.

Yet, in a real secular country, the state cannot interfere in religion and there cannot be any compulsory religious classes in schools.

We workers from UID-DER call out:

Stop all kinds of oppression on Alevis!

Abolish compulsory religious classes, guarantee freedom of belief!

Acknowledge all democratic demands of Alevis!

Acknowledge education in native language!

Education in native language is a well-known universal human right. Speaking and writing in native language in official (courts, schools etc.) and everyday life (workplaces, outdoors) cannot be prohibited.

However, Kurdish people’s demand to have education in their native language is being ignored.

Having denied even the existence of Kurds until recent past, now governments deny their language and prohibit its use.

On the one hand the state establishes a television channel broadcasting in Kurdish, but on the other hand the same state is unwilling to acknowledge the very existence of Kurdish describing it as an “unknown language”.

All parties of capital, MHP in the first place, portray democratic demands of Kurdish people in a provocative way as demands for dividing and breaking-up of the country.

They try to inflame Turks against Kurds and make them enemies of each other.

MHP in particular, keeps drawing bleak pictures, fuels nationalism and feeds on it. It wants to turn nationalism into votes. That is why it stands against democratic reforms.

We workers from UID-DER call out:

Stop all oppression on Kurdish people!

Recognise all peoples’ right of education in their native language including Kurds!

Meet the national democratic demands of Kurdish people!

Unite in our class organisations for our independent interests!

Brothers and sisters, capitalist parties do not solve serious social problems, but exploit them for their own goods.

They strive to pull us behind their trains and turn us into their social base.

Shall we believe in their lies?

No matter what name they carry, capitalist parties never have common interests with us.

One cannot expect determined, brave and consistent steps from them to solve of our problems.

Only an organised working class could be the real defender of democratic rights.

We workers must embrace the cause of democratic rights of various sections of society which have diverse beliefs and languages.

In addition, we should not forget the fact that it’s we, the workers, forming the big majority of society, who suffers most from those unsolved problems.

As workers from UID-DER we say: Our sisters carrying headscarf, our Kurdish brothers and sisters demanding education in Kurdish, our Alevi brothers and sisters demanding abolishment of compulsory religious classes and not to be discriminated against, have nothing against one another while working in the same workplaces and living in the same neighbourhoods. We are members of the same class, the working class; so we have common interests against bosses!

Do not let them play us off against one another.

Let’s embrace all of these problems and put pressure on the rulers of the system for solution.

Let’s unite in our class organisations for our class interests.

Let’s put pressure on our unions and control them to make them own these issues.

The genuine and permanent solution for these problems of long years depends on united struggle of workers.

Likewise we oppose unemployment, exploitation and oppression, we must stand against the ban on headscarf and native languages, the compulsory religious classes, oppression on any sort of beliefs and any nationality.

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